Conflict Minerals: SEC Files Brief in Conflict Minerals Rehearing

Dec 8, 2014 | Stephen M. Quinlivan, Lexology
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The SEC has filed its brief in the conflict minerals rehearing.  Amnesty International also filed its brief as intervenor and Free Speech for People filed an amicus brief.

To recap, when the court held the conflict minerals rule was compelled speech that violated the First Amendment, it did so on the basis that limited scrutiny under Zauderer was not appropriate because that was reserved for situations involving the deception of consumers.  Subsequently, an en banc court found in American Meat Inst. that other government interests outside of consumer deception could support the application of Zauderer.  For Zauderer to apply the commercial disclosure must be of purely factual and uncontroversial information.